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THE LAW OF GOD AND THE STATUTES OF MEN. 



SERMON, 



PREACHED AT 



THE MUSIC HALL, IN BOSTON 



ON SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 1854. 



BY THEODORE PARKER, 

Minister of the Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society. 



PHOXOGRAPHICALLY REPORTED BY RUFU3 LEIGHTON. 



BOSTON: 
BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY & CO. 

1854. 



— o 

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- F*b 05 



SERMON. 



" Thou siialt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him oxly 
shalt thou serve." — Mattlmc iv. 10. 

Last Sunday I spoke of Trust in God, endeavoring to 
show that it involved an absolute confidence in the Pur- 
poses of God, and an absolute confidence in the Means 
thereunto, and consequently the practical Use thereof. 

There is a matter of very great consequence connected 
herewith, namely this, — the Relation between a man's 
Religion and his Allegiance to the Church and the State. 
So this morning I ask your attention to a Sermon of our 
Duty to the Laws of God, and our Obligation to the 
Statutes of Men. It is a theme I have often spoken of ; 
and what I shall say this morning may be regarded as 
occasional, and supplementary to the much that I have 
said, and printed, likewise, before. 

In its primitive form, Religion is a mere Emotion ; it 
is nothing but a feeling ; an instinctive feeling ; at first 
vague, shadowy, dim. In its secondary stage it is also a 



a Thought ; the emotion has travelled from the heart 
upwards to the head. It is an Idea, an abstract idea, 
the Object whereof transcends both time and space, and 
is not cognizable by any sense. But finally, in its ulti- 
mate form, it becomes likewise an Act. Thus it spreads 
over all a man's life, inward and outward too ; it goes 
up to the tallest heights of the philosopher's speculation, 
down to the lowest deeps of human consciousness ; it 
reaches to the minute details of our daily practice. Thus 
Religion wraps all our life in its own wide mantle. So 
the sun, ninety-six million miles away, comes every 
morning and folds in its warm embrace each great and 
every little thing on the round world. Religion takes 
note of the private conduct of the individual man, and 
the vast public concerns of the greatest nation and the 
whole race of mankind. 

It is eminently connected with the Creeds and the 
Statutes of the people, wherein the nation comes to the 
consciousness of itself, and of its duty. To comprehend 
the relation which religion bears to these creeds and stat- 
utes, let us look at the matter a little more narrowly, 
going somewhat in detail ; and to understand it the more 
completely, let us go back to the first principles of things. 

There is a God of Infinite Perfection, who acts as 
perfect Cause and perfect Providence of all things, — 
making the Universe from a perfect motive, of perfect 
material, for a perfect purpose, and as a perfect means 



theranto. Of course, if the Universe be thus made, 
there must be power and force enough, of the right 
kind, in it to accomplish the purposes of God ; and 
this must be true of both parts of the Universe,— 
the World of Matter, and the World of Man. Else, 
God is not a perfect Cause and Providence, and has 
not made the Universe from a perfect motive, of per- 
fect material, for a perfect purpose, and as a perfect 
means thereto. 

Now, there are certain natural modes of operation of 
these forces and powers which God has put in the Uni- 
verse ; the natural powers of matter and of man are 
meant to act in a certain way, and not otherwise. These 
modes of operation I will call Laws, Natural Laws ; they 
exist in the material world and in the human world. 
They are a part of the Universe. These Laws must be 
observed and kept as means to the end that is proposed. 
In the World of Matter these Laws are always kept, 
for the Actual of Nature and the Ideal of Nature are 
identical ; they are just the same. When this leaf 
which I drop falls from my hand, it falls by the Law 
which the Infinite God meant it should fall by, and keeps 
that exactly. In Nature — the world of matter — this 
always takes place, and the Actual of to-day is the Ideal 
of eternity, — for there everything is accomplished with 
no finite, private, individual will; all is mechanism, the 
brute, involuntary, unconscious action of matter passively 
obedient to the mind and will of God. There God is the 



only Actor ; all else is tool ; He is the only Workman ; 
Nature is all engine and God the Engineer. Accord- 
ingly, in the world of matter there is a harmony of 
forces ; but not a harmony of purpose, of will, of thought, 
of feeling, — because there is only one purpose, will, 
thought, feeling. God alone is the consciousness of the 
material world ; matter obeys his Laws, but wills not, 
knows not. The ideal of Nature resides in God's con- 
sciousness ; only its actual in itself. The two are one ; 
but the material things do not know of that oneness ; 
God only knows thereof. Nature knows nothing of God, 
nothing of his laws, nothing of itself; — because therein 
God is the only Cause, the only Providence, the only 
Consciousness. 

On the other hand, in the Human World, man is 
an actor as well as a tool ; he is in part engine, in 
part also engineer. The ideal of man's conduct, charac- 
ter and destination, resides in God ; but thence it is 
transferred to the mind of man by man's own instinct 
and reflection ; and it is to become^ actual by man's 
thought, man's will, man's work. The human race 
comes to consciousness in itself, and not merely to con- 
sciousness in God. So in virtue of the superior nature 
and destination of man, between him and God there is 
to be not merely a harmony of forces, but a harmony of 
feeling, thought, will, purpose, and thence of act. Man 
is to obey the natural Laws as completely as that leaf 
obeyed them, falling from my hand. But, unlike the 



leaf, man is to know that he obeys ; he must will to obey. 
So he is to form in his own mind an ideal of the charac- 
ter which he should attain, of the conduct which he 
would observe, and then by his own will he is to make 
that ideal his actual. This is the dignity of man, — he 
is partial cause and providence of his own affairs 

In general, man has powers sufficient to find out the 
natural mode of operation of all his human forces, all 
the natural Laws of his conduct, his natural ideal. Nar- 
row this down to a small compass, and take one portion 
of these powers, — the Moral Part of man, and thereof 
this only, — that portion which relates to his dealing with 
his fellow-men. 

There is a moral faculty called Conscience. Its func- 
tion is to inform us of the Moral Ideal ; to transfer it 
from God's mind to our mind ; to inform us what are 
the natural modes of operation, the rules of conduct in 
our relation with other men. Conscience does this in 
two ways. 

First, by Instinctive moral action. Here conscience 
acts spontaneously and anticipates experience, acts in 
advance of history, and spontaneously projects an ideal 
which is derived from the moral instinct of our nature. 
This is the transcendent way of learning the moral 
Law. And let me add, it is the favorite way of young 
and enthusiastic persons ; the favorite way, likewise, 
of meditative and contemplative men, who dwell apart 
from mankind, and look at Ideas which are the causes 



i 



V 



8 

of action more than at the immediate or ultimate effect 
of special measures. 

The other way is by Reflective moral action. Here 
* we learn the moral Laws by experiment ; by observation, 
trial, experience, we find out what suits the conscience 
of the individual and the conscience of mankind. This 
is the inductive way, and it is the favorite mode of the 
the great mass of men, of practical men who live in the 
midst of affairs. 

Each of these methods has its advantage, both their 
special limitations and defects. We require both of 
these, — the process of moral instinct which shoots for- 
. ward and forecasts the ideal, and the process of moral 
induction which comes carefully afterwards and studies 
the facts and sees what conduct squares with conscience, 
and how it looks after the act has been done as well as 
before. 

In these two ways we learn the natural mode of opera- 
tion and the natural rules of conduct which suit our 
moral nature ; that is, we discover the Moral Laws which 
4 are writ in the nature and constitution of man, and are 
thence historically made known in the consciousness of 
man. 

When they are understood, we see that they are fche 
Laws of God, a part of the Universe, a part of the pur- 
pose of God, a part of the means which God has pro- 
vided for accomplishing his purpose. 



These laws are not of man's making, but of his finding 
made. He no more makes them than the blacksmith 
makes the heaviness of his iron, or the astronomer makes 
the moon eclipse the sun. A man may heed these laws, 
or heed them not ; make them, or unmake them, — that 
is beyond his power. 

Neither the individual nor the race acquires a con- 
sciousness of these Moral Laws all at once. It is done 
progressively by you and me ; progressively by the human 
race, learning here a little, and there a little. The natu- 
ral moral ideal is not all at once transferred from God's 
Mind to man's. We learn the Laws of our moral nature 
like the Laws of matter, slowly, little by little. A good 
man is constantly making progress in the knowledge of 
God's natural Moral Laws ; mankind does the same. 
The race to-day knows more of the natural Moral Laws 
of our constitution than the human race ever knew before. . 
A thousand years hence no doubt, mankind will know a 
great deal more of this natural moral ideal than we 
know to-day. Accordingly, speaking after the events of 
history, the Moral Ideal of mankind is continually rising. 
It may not be always rising in the same .man, who goes 
on for a while, then becomes idle, or old, or wicked, and 
goes down. It may not always be rising in the same 
nation ; that also advances for a while, then sins against 
God sometimes, and goes down to ruin. But, take the 
human race as a whole, the moral ideal of mankind is 
constantly rising higher and higher. 



10 



The next thing is to obey these Laws, consciously, 
knowing we obey them ; voluntarily, willing to obey, and 
make the moral ideal the actual of life for the individual 
and the race. This also is done progressively ; not all 
at once, but by slow degrees. The Moral Actual of the 
human race is constantly rising higher and higher. Just 
in proportion as the ideal shoots up the actual follows 
after it, though on slow and laborious wings. If you 
look microscopically, at the condition of mankind at 
intervals of only a hundred years, you will see that there 
is a moral progress from century to century ; but sepa- 
rate your points of observation by a thousand years 
instead of a century, the moral progress of the race is so 
obvious that no unprejudiced man can fail to see it when 
he opens his natural eyes and looks. I will not say it is 
so with every special nation, for a nation may go back as 
well as forward ; but it is so with the human race as 
a whole, so with mankind. 

Religion — which begins in feeling, proceeds to thought, 
and thence to action, — in its highest form is the keeping 
of all the Laws which God writ in the constitution of 
man : in other words, it is the service of God by the 
normal use, discipline, development, enjoyment and 
delight of every limb of the body, every faculty of the 
spirit, every power which we possess over matter or over 
mankind, — each in its due proportion, all in their com- 
plete harmony. That is the whole and complete religion. 



11 



Now leaving out of sight for a moment the matter of 
mere sentiment, in religion reducing itself to practice 
there are two things, — to wit, first, Intellectual Ideas, 
doctrines of the mind, things to be believed ; secondly, 
Moral Duties, doctrines of the conscience, things to be 
done. Each man in his private individual capacity, as 
Edwin or Richard, has his own intellectual ideas, things 
to be believed, his own moral duties, thimrs to be done. 
To be faithful to himself he must believe the one and 
must do the other. It is a part of his personal religion 
to believe the truths which he knows, to do the duties 
that he acknowledges. 

But man is social as well as solitary. So men, in 
their collective capacity as churches, towns, nations, 
come to the conclusion that they have certain intellectual 
ideas which ought to be believed, certain moral duties 
which ought to be done. As an expression of this fact, 
men assembling in bodies for purposes called religious, 
as churches, make up a collection of ideas connected with 
religion, which are deemed true. They call this a Creed, is 
It is a collection of things to be believed, and so it is also 
a rule of intellectual conduct in matters pertaining to 
religion. 

They likewise assemble in bodies for a purpose more 
directly practical, as towns, as nations, and make a col- 
lection of duties which are deemed obligatory. They ^ 
call this collection of duties a Constitution or a Code of 
Statutes. 



12 

I will use the word statute to mean what is commonly 
called a law, made by men : that is to say a rule u of 
practical conduct devised by men in authority. I keep 
the word Law to describe the natural mode of operation 
which God wrote in the constitution of material or human 
nature, and the word Statute for that rule of conduct 
which man makes and adds thereunto. 

This is a legitimate aim in making the Creed, — to 

• preserve all known religious truth, and diffuse it amongst 
men. But it is not legitimate to aim at hindering the 
attainment of new religious truth, or to hinder efforts 
for the attainment of new religious truth. 

This is a legitimate aim in making the Statutes, — to 

* preserve all known moral duty, and diffuse it amongst 
men ; and thereby secure to each man the enjoyment 
of all his natural rights, so that he may act accord- 
ing to the natural mode of operation of his powers. 
But it is not legitimate to hinder the attainment of new 
moral duty, or efforts after that. The creed should aim 

,1 at Truth, all truth, and should be a step towards it. The 
statutes should aim at Justice, all justice, to ensure all 
the rights of all, and should be a step in that direction, 
not away from it. 

Both the creeds and statutes may be made as fol- 
lows : 

First, they may be made by men who are far before 
the people, men who get sight of truths and duties in 



13 



advance of mankind. Then these men set to mankind 
a hard lesson, but one that is profitable for instruction, 
for doctrine, for reproof, that the man of God may be 
thoroughly furnished to every good work. In such cases 
the creed or statute is educational ; it is prepared for the 
pupil, set by a master. 

Or, secondly, these creeds and statutes may be made 
by men who are just on a level with the average of the 
people. Then they are simply expressional of the moral 
character and attainments of the average men. They 
are educational to the hindmost, expressional to the mid- 
dlemost, and merely protectional to the foremost, — of no 
service as helping them forward, only as protecting them 
from being disturbed, interrupted and so drawn back- 
wards by those who are behind. 

Or, thirdly, these creeds and statutes may be made by 
crafty men who are below the moral average of the peo- 
ple ; made not as steps towards truth and justice, but as 
means for the private personal ambition of such as make 
the statutes or the creeds ; by men who are endowed with 
force of body, and rule over our flesh by violence, or 
with force of * cunning, and rule over our minds by 
sophistry and fraud. In this case the creed or statute 
is a step backwards, aims not at truth and justice, but 
at falsehood and wrong, and is simply debasing, — debas- 
ing to the mind and conscience. Here it is not a teacher 
giving lessons to the pupil ; it is not a pupil undertaking 
to set a lesson to another who knows as much as he does ; 



14 



it is a scoundrel setting a lesson of wickedness to the 
saint and the sinner. 

Laws may be made in any one of these three ways, 
and no more ; the categories are exhaustive, 

Now see the relation of each individual man to the 
Creed of his Nation or Church. By his moral nature 
4 man is bound to believe what to him appears true. His 
mind demands it as intellectual duty, his conscience 
demands it as moral duty ; it is a part of his religion ; 
faithfulness to himself requires this. 

But he is likewise morally bound to reject everything 
that to him seems false. He can close his mind and not 
think about the matter at all, and so he may seem to 
believe when he does not ; or he can actually think the 
other way and lie about it and pretend to believe. But if 
he is faithful, he must believe what to him seems true, 
and must reject what to him seems untrue. 

If a man does this, the public creed of the people or 
church may be a help to him, because while it embodies 
both the truths that men know, and the errors which 
they likewise suppose to be true, he accepts from the 
creed what he deems true and rejects what he deems 
false. The false that he rejects, harms him not ; the 
true which he accepts is a blessing. But there is this 
trouble, — the priest, who has made, invented or im- 
ported the creed, claims jurisdiction over the minds of 
men and bids the philosopher " Accept our creed." 



15 



" No ! " answers the philosopher, " I cannot ! my reason 
forbids." " Then, down with your reason ! " thunders 
the priest, "there is no truth above our creed! The 
priest and creed are not amenable to reason ; reason is 
amenable to them ! " What shall be done ? Shall the 
philosopher submit, and seem to believe ? Shall he think 
the other way, and yet pretend to believe, and lie ? or 
shall he openly and unhesitatingly reject what seems 
false 1 Ask these prophets of the Old Testament what 
we shall do ! ask Socrates, Anaxagoras, Paul, Luther, 
Jesus ! ask the Puritans of England, the Huguenots of 
France, the Covenanters of Scotland, which we shall 
do ! whether we shall count human Reason amenable to 
the priest, or the priest amenable to human Reason. 
Sometimes a whole nation violates its mind and submits * 
to the priest's creed. The many mainly give up think- 
ing all together, — they can do it and have done it ; the 
few think, but lie outwardly, pretending belief. Then 
there comes the intellectual death of the nation ; the 
people are cut off from new accessions of truth, and intel- 
lectually they die out. " Where there is no vision the 
people perish," says the Old Testament; and there is 
not a word in the Bible that is more true. Tear a rose- 
bush from the ground and suspend it in the air, will it 
live ? Just as much will man's mind live when plucked 
away from contact with Truth. Do you want historic 
examples ? Look at Mahometan countries compared with 
Christian. W T hilst the Koran was in advance of the 



16 



Mahometans there was a progress in the nations which 
accepted it. There arose great men. But now when men 
have lived up to the Koran, and are forbidden to think 
further, science dies out, all original literature disap- 
pears, there is no great spiritual growth. In the whole 
Mahometan world this day, there is not a single man 
eminent for science or literature ; not a great Ma- 
hometan orator, poet or statesman, amongst all the 
many millions of Mahometans on the round world. 
Look at a Catholic in comparison with a Protestant coun- 
try. Compare Catholic Spain, Portugal, Italy, with 
England, Scotland, Germany, noble Protestant countries, 
and see the odds. In the Catholic countries the priest 
has laid himself down at the foot of the tree, and says, 
"Root into me, and you shall have life." Compare 
Catholic Brazil with Protestant New England. Nay, in 
New England, go into the families of private men, fam- 
ilies where bigotry of the various denominations, Unita- 
rian as well as Trinitarian, — for there is a " Unitarian " 
bigotry, — has put its cold, hard hand, and forbidden 
freedom of thought ; — compare the children born and 
bred there with such as are born and bred in families 
where freedom of thought is not only tolerated but en- 
couraged, and see the difference. The foremost men of 
this country in science, literature, statesmanship, are 
men who have spurned that Pharisaic meanness, which 
chains a man's mind and fetters his conscience. 



17 



It is as important to accumulate the thoughts of many 
men, as to consolidate their property for building a rail- 
road, a factory, or a town. No single man is so rich as 
the whole people of Massachusetts ; and though before 
all other in some speciality, no one man is so rich in 
thought as mankind. To aggregate the knowledge of a 
hundred men, each mastering some special subject, is of 
great value ; it embodies the result of very much think- 
ing, which may be thus hoarded up for future use. That 
is a good thing ; and as each truth is a source of power, 
it quickens other men and helps them to think. Such 
is the effect of the scientific associations of Christendom, 
from the Boston Society of Natural History, to the 
French Academy, — perhaps the most learned and accom- 
plished body of men on earth. That is a legitimate 
function of bodies of men coming together, each dropping ^ 
his special wisdom into the human chest, for the advan- 
tage of the whole. 

But on the other hand, the consolidation of the opin- 
ions of men who are not seeking for truth to liberate Is 
mankind, but for means to enthrall us withal, will embody 
falsehood and also retard the progress of mankind by hin- 
dering free thought. This will be the result wherever 
the actual creed is taken for total, — embracing all truth 
now known ; as final, — embracing all truth that is to 
be known ; and as unquestionable, the ultimate standard 
of Truth. 

2 



18 



I just said there was not a single eminent man of 
science or letters in any Mahometan country ; not a 
great scholar, philosopher, or historian. Yet there is 
talent enough born into Mahometan countries, — as much 
as in Christian nations of the same race ; but it has 
not opportunity for development ; the young Hercules is 
choked in his cradle. Look at' the Catholics of the 
United States in comparison with the Protestants. In 
the whole of America there is not a sinsrle man born and 
bred a Catholic distinguished for anything but his devo- 
tion to the Catholic Church : I mean to say there is not a 
man in America born and bred a Catholic, who has any 
distinction in science, literature, politics, benevolence or 
philanthropy. I do not know one ; I never heard of a 
great philosopher, naturalist, historian, orator or poet 
amongst them. The Jesuits have been in existence 
three hundred years ; they have had their pick of the 
choicest intellect of all Europe, — they never take a 
common man when they know it, — they subject every 
pupil to a severe ordeal, intellectual and physical, as well 
as moral, in order to ascertain whether he has the requi- 
site stuff in him to make a strong Jesuit out of. They 
have a scheme of education masterly in its way. But 
there has not been a single great original man produced 
in the company of Jesuits from 1545 to 1854. They 
absorb talent enough but they strangle it. Clipped oaks 
never grow large. Prune the roots of a tree with a 
spade, prune the branches close to the bole, what be- 
comes of the tree ? The bole itself remains thin and 



19 



scant and slender. Can a man be a conventional dwarf 
and a natural giant at the same time ? Case your little 
boy's limbs in metal, would they grow ? Plant a chest- 
nut in a tea-cup, do you get a tree ? Not a shrub even. 
Put a priest, or a priest's creed as the only soil for a man 
to grow in ; he grows not. The great God provided the 
natural mode of operation : — do you suppose He will 
turn aside and mend or mar the Universe at your or my 
request ? I think God will do no snch thing. 

Now see the relation of the individual to the Statutes 
of men. There is a natural duty to obey every statute \s 
which is just. It is so before the thing becomes a statute. 
The legislator makes a decree ; it is a declaration that 
certain things must be done, or certain other things not 
done. If the things commanded are just, the statute 
does not make them just ; does not make them any more 
morally obligatory than they were before. The legislator 
may make it very uncomfortable for me to disobey his ^ 
command, when that is wicked ; he cannot make it right 
for me to keep it when wicked. All the moral obligation 
depends on the justice of the statute, not on its legality ; ^ 
not on its constitutionality ; but, on the fact that it is a 
part of the natural Law of God, the natural mode of ope- 
ration of man. The statute no more makes it a moral 
duty to love men and not hate them, than the multiplica- 
tion table makes twice two four : the multiplication table 
declares it ; it does not make it. If a statute announces, 
" Thou shalt hate thy neighbor, not love him," it does 



20 



not change the duty, more than the multiplication table 
would alter the fact if it should declare that twice two is 
three. Geometry proves that the three angles of a tri- 
angle are equal to two right angles : it does not make 
the equality between the two. 

Now then, as it is a moral duty to obey a just statute 
because it is just, so it is a moral duty to disobey any 
statute which is unjust. If the statute squares with the 
Law of God, if the constitution of Morocco corresponds 
with the Constitution of the Universe, which God writ in 
my heart, — then I am to keep the constitution of Mo- 
rocco ; if not, disobey it, as a matter of conscience. 
Here in disobedience, there are two degrees. First, 

^ there is passive disobedience, non-obedience, the doing 
nothing for the statute ; and second, there is active diso- 
bedience, which is resistance, the doing something, not 
for the statute, but something against it. Sometimes the 
moral duty is accomplished by the passive disobedience, 
doing nothing ; sometimes, to accomplish the moral duty, 
it is requisite to resist, to do something against the 
statute. However, we are to resist wrong by right, not 
wrong by wrong. 

There are many statutes which relate mainly to mat- 
ters of convenience. They are rules of public conduct 
indeed, but only rules of prudence, not of morals. Such 
are the statutes declaring that a man shall not vote till 

v twenty-one ; that he shall drive his team on the right 
hand side of the street ; that he may take six per cent. 
per annum as interest, and not sixty ; that he may catch 



21 



alewives in Taunton River on Fridays, and not on Thurs 
days or Saturdays. It is necessary that there should be 
such rules of prudence as these ; and while they do not 
offend the conscience every good man will respect them ; 
it is not immoral to keep them. 

The intellectual value of a creed is that while it em- 
bodies truth it also represents the free thought of the 
believer who has come to that conclusion, either by him- 
self alone, or as he has been voluntarily helped thither- 
ward by some person who knows better than he. In that 
case his creed is the monument of the man's progress, 
and is the basis for future progress. It is to him, in 
that stage of his growth, the right rule of intellectual 
conduct. But when the creed is forced on the man, and 
he pretends to believe and believes not, or only tacitly 
assents, not having thought enough to deny it, — then it 
debases and enslaves the man. 

So the moral value of a statute is, that while it em- 
bodies justice it also represents the free conscience of the 
nation. Then also it is a monument of the nation's 
moral progress, showing how far it has got on. It is 
likewise a basis, for future progress, being a right rule for 
moral conduct. But when the statute only embodies 
injustice, and so violates the conscience, and is forced on 
men by bayonets, then its moral value is all gone ; it is 
against the conscience. If the people consent to suffer 
it, it is because they are weak ; and if they consent to 
obey it, it is because they are also wicked. 

When the foremost moral men make a statute in ad- 



S 



22 



vance of the people, and then attempt to enforce that law 
against the consent of the majority of the people, it is 
an effort in the right direction and is educational ; then 
I suppose the best men will try to execute the law, and 
will appeal to the best motives in the rest of men. But 
even here, if ever this is attempted, it should always be 
done with the greatest caution, lest the leader should go 
too fast for his followers, undertaking to drag the nation 
instead of leading them. You may drag dead oxen, drive 
living oxen ; but a nation is not to be dragged, not to be 
driven, even in the right direction ; it is to be led. A 
grown father, six feet high, does not walk five miles the 
hour with his child two years old ; if he does, he must 
drag his boy ; if he wants to lead him he must go by 
slow and careful steps, now and then taking him over the 
rough places in his arms. That must be done when the 
1 law-maker is very far in advance of the people ; he must 
lead them gently to the right end. 

But when a wicked statute is made by the hindmost 
^ men in morals, men far in the rear of the average of 
the people, and urging them in the wrong direction ; 
when the statute offends the conscience* of the people, 
and the rulers undertake by violence to enforce the 
statute, then it can be only mean men who will desire its 
execution, and they must appeal to the lowest motives 
which animate mean men, and will thus debase the 
people further and further. 

The priest makes a creed against the mind of the peo- 
ple, and says, "There is no truth above my creed! 



23 



Down with your reason ! it asks terrible questions." So 
the Catholic is always taught by authority. The priest 
does not aim to convince the reason ; not at all ! He 
says to the philosophers, " This is the doctrine of the 
church. It is a true doctrine, but you must believe it, 
not because it is true, — you have no right to ask ques- 
tions, — but because the church' says so." The tyrant 
makes a statute, and says, "There is no Law above 
this." The subject is not to ask, " Is the statute right ? 
does it conform to the Constitution of the Universe, to 
God's will reflected in my conscience ? " He is only to 
inquire, "Is it a statute law? what docs the judge 
say ? There is no Higher Law. " 

That is the doctrine which is taught to-day in almost 
every political newspaper in this country, Whig and 
Democratic ; and in many of the theological newspa- 
pers. But the theological newspapers do not teach it 
as a Principle and all at once ; they teach it in detail, 
as a Measure, telling us that this or that particular statute 
is to be observed, say conscience what it may. It is 
assumed that the legislator is not amenable to the rules 
of natural justice. He is only checked by the constitu- 
tion of the land, not the Constitution of the Universe. 

See how the principle once worked. Pharaoh made a 
statute that all the new-born boys of Hebrew parentage 
should be killed as soon as they were born. That was 
the statute ; and instructions were given to the nurses, 
" If it be a son, then ye shall kill him." Did it become 
the m oral duty of Nurse Shiprah and Nurse Puah to 



24 



drown every new-born Hebrew baby in the River Nile ? 
Was it the moral duty of Amrani and Jochebed to allow 
Moses to be killed ? It is only a legitimate application 
of the principle laid down by " the highest authorities " 
in America, — what are called the highest, though I 
reckon them among the lowest. 

King Darius forbade prayer to any God or man ex- 
cept himself. Should the worshippers of Jehovah hold 
back their prayer to the Creator ? Daniel was of rather 
a different opinion. A few years ago a minister of a 
"prominent church" in this city was told of another 
minister who had exhorted persons to disobey the Fugi- 
tive Slave Bill, because it was contrary to the Law of 
God and the principles of Right. " What do you think 
of it?" said the questioner, who was a woman, to the 
Doctor of Divinity. "Very bad!" replied he, "this 
minister ought to keep the statute, and he should not 
advise men to disobey it." "But," said the good wo- 
man, " Daniel, we are told, when the law was otherwise, 
prayed to the Lord ! prayed right out loud three times a 
day, with his window wide open ! Did he do right or 
wrong ? Would not }-ou have done the same ? " The 
minister said, " If I had lived in those times, — I think. 
I should — have shut my window." There was no 
Higher Law ! 

King Herod ordered all the young children in Bethle- 
hem to be slain. Was it right for the magistrates to 
execute the order ? for the Justices of the Peace to kill 
the babies ? for the fathers and mothers to do nothing 



25 



against the massacre of those innocents ? The person 
who wrote the account of it seems to have been of rather 
a different opinion. 

King Henry the Eighth of England, ordered that no 
man should read the English Bible. Reading the Bible 
in. the Kingdom was made a felony, — punishable with 
death, without benefit of clergy. Was it the duty of 
Dr. Franklin's humble fathers to refuse to read their 
Bibles ? They did read them, and your fathers and 
mine also, I trust. King Pharaoh, Darius, Herod, 
Henry the Eighth, could not make a wrong thing right. 
If a mechanic puts his wheel on the upper side of the 
dam, do you suppose the Merrimack is going to run up 
into New Hampshire to turn his* mill ? Just as soon as 
the great God will undo his own moral work to accommo- 
date a foolish and wicked legislator. 

Suppose it was not the king, a one-headed legis- 
lator, but the majority of the nation, a legislator with 
many heads, who made the statutes, would that alter the 
case ? Once, when France was democratic, the democ- 
racy ordered the butchery of thousands of men and 
women. Was it a moral duty to massacre the people ? 

I know very well it is commonly taught that it is 
the moral duty of the officers of government to execute 
every statute, and of the people to submit thereto, no 
matter how wicked the statute may be. This is the 
doctrine of the Supreme Court of the United States of 
America, of the Executive of the United States ; I 
know very well it is the doctrine of the majority of the 



26 



Legislature in botli Houses of Congress ; it is the doctrine 
of the churches of Commerce; — God be praised, it is 
not the doctrine of the churches of Christianity, and 
there are such in every denomination, in many a town ; 
even in the great centers of commerce there are minis- 
ters of many denominations, earnest, faithful men, who 
swear openly that they will keep God's Law, come what 
will of man's statute. This is practical piety ; the oppo- 
site is practical atheism. I have known some specula- 
tive atheists. I abhor their doctrines ; but the specula- 
tive atheists that I have known, all recognize a Law 
higher than men's passions and calculations ; the Law of 
some Pow r er which makes the Universe and sways it for 
noble purposes and to a* blessed end. 

Then comes the doctrine : — while the statute is on the 
books it must be enforced. It is not only the right of 
the legislator to make any constitutional statute he 
pleases, but it is the moral and religious duty of the mag- 
istrate to enforce the statute ; it is the duty of the peo- 
ple to obey. So in Pharaoh's time it was a moral duty 
to drown the babies in the Nile ; in Darius' time to pray 
to King Darius, and him only ; in Herod's time to mas- 
sacre the children of Bethlehem ; in Henry the Eighth's 
time to cast your Bible to the flames. Iscariot only did 
a disagreeable duty. 

It is a most dreadful doctrine ; utterly false ! Has a 
legislator, Pharaoh, Darius, Herod, Henry the Eighth, 
a single tyrant, any moral right to repudiate God, and 
declare himself not amenable to the moral Law of the 



27 

Universe ? You all answer, No ! Have ten millions of 
men out of nineteen millions in America a right to do 
this ? Has any man a moral right to repudiate justice and 
declare himself not amenable to conscience and to God ? 
Where did he get the right to invade the conscience of 
mankind ? Is it because he is legislator, magistrate, 
governor, president, king ? 

Suppose all the voluptuaries of America held a con- 
gress of lewdness at New Orleans, and said, " There is 
no Law higher than the brute instinctive passion of lust 
in men," — then would the pimps and bawds and lechers 
have the moral right to repudiate conscience and crush 
purity out of the nation ? 

Imagine that all the misers and sharpers and cheats 
held a convention of avarice at New York or Boston, and 
made statutes accordingly, declaring " There is no Law 
higher than covetousness," — would they have the moral 
right to lie and steal and cheat, and "crush out" all 
the honest men ? 

Fancy all the ruffians and man-killers assembled in San 
Francisco, — it would be a fit place, for there were 
twelve hundred murders committed there in less than 
four years, — held a convention of violence, and sought 
to organize murder, and declared, "There is no Law 
higher than the might of the lifted arm," — would they 
have the moral right to kill, stab, butcher whomsoever 
they pleased ? 

But that is supposing all this wickedness done without 
the form of an elected legislature. Then suppose the 
actual legislatures of the nation should revise the Consti- 



28 

tution and delegate the power to those persons to do that 
work and make statutes for the protection of lewdness, 
fraud and butchery, — would it then be the moral duty of 
the rulers to enforce those statutes ; and of the people to 
submit ? Just as much as it is the moral duty of men to 
enforce any wicked statute made under the present Con- 
stitution of the United States and by the present legisla- 
tors. The principle is false. It is only justified on the 
idea that there is no God, and this world is a chaos. 
But yet it is taught ; and only last Sunday the minister 
of a " prominent church " taught that every law must be 
executed, right or wrong, and thanked the soldiers who, 
with their bayonets, forced an innocent man to slavery. 
No matter how unjust a statute is, it must be enforced 
and obeyed so long as it is on the Law Book ! 

Human law in general is a useful and indispensable 
instrument ; but because a special statute is made for 
injustice, is it to be used for injustice ? Massachusetts 
has some thousands of muskets in the arsenal at Cam- 
bridge ; but because they were made to shoot with, shall 
I take them to kill my neighbors ; shall the governor 
order the soldiers to shoot down the citizens ? It is no 
worse to do injustice with a gun than to do injustice with 
a statute. It is not merely the means by which the 
wicked end is reached that is wicked, it is the end itself; 
and if the means is a thing otherwise good, the wicked 
end makes its use atrocious. What is the statute in the 
one case but a tool, and the gun a tool in the other case ? 
The instrument is not to be blamed, and the gun is no 



29 

more to be used for a wicked purpose than the statute ; 
a State statute no more than a State gun. Medicine is 
a very useful thing. But will you, therefore, go into an 
apothecary's shop and take his drugs at random ? If you 
are killed by a poison it is no better because called 
' medicine." 

But the notion that every statute must be enforced is 
historically false. Who enforces the Sunday-law in 
Massachusetts ? Every daily newspaper you will read 
to-morrow morning violates the statutes of Massachusetts 
to-day. It would not be possible to enforce them. Of 
all the millions of bank capital in Massachusetts, within 
twelve months, every dollar has violated the statute 
against Usury. Nobody enforces these acts. Half the 
statutes of New England are but sleeping lions to wait 
for the call of the people ; nobody wakes them up every 
day. Some have been so long fast asleep that they are 
dead. 

When the nation will accept every creed which the 
priest makes, because it is made for them, then they are 
tools for the priest, intellectually dead ; and they are fit 
to have Catholic tyrants rule over them in the church. 
When the nation is willing to accept a statute which 
violates the nation's conscience, the nation is rotten. If 
a statute is right, I will ask how I can best obey it. 
When it is wrong, I will ask how I can best disobey 
it, — most safely, most effectually, with the least vio- 
lence. When we make the priest the keeper of our 
creed, the State the master of our conscience, then it is 
all over with us. 



30 

Sometimes a great deal of sophistry is used to deceive 
the consciences of men and make them think a wicked 
law is just and right. There are two modes of procedure 
for reaching this end. 

One is to weaken the man's confidence in his own 
moral perceptions by debasing human nature, declaring 
that conscience is a "most uncertain guide for the indi- 
vidual," and showing that all manner of follies and even 
wickedness have been perpetrated in its name. So all 
manner of follies have been taught in the name of Rea- 
son, and foolish undertakings have been set a going by 
prudent and practical men. But is that sufficient argu- 
ment for refusing to trust the science of the philosopher 
and the common sense of practical men ? 

The other way is to pretend that the obnoxious statute 
is " consistent with morality and religion." Thus the 
most wicked acts have been announced in the name of 
God. The Catholics claimed divine authority for the 
Inquisition ; the Carthaginians alleged the command of 
God as authority for sacrificing children to Melkarte. In 
the Law Library at Cambridge, a copy of the English Bible 
in Folio was once the first book in the collection ; a Profes- 
sor then used often to point to the Bible and say, " That 
is the foundation of the law. It all rests on the word of 
God!" So every wicked statute, each " ungodly cus- 
tom become a law," had divine authority! The same 
experiment is often tried with the fugitive slave bill — 
it is declared "divine," having "the sanction of the 
Law, the Prophets and the Gospel." 



31 

With these two poisons do men corrupt the public 
fountains of morality ! 

Religion is the only basis for everything. It must go 
everywhere, into the man's shop, into the seamstress' 
work-room, must steer the sailor's ship. Reverence for 
the Infinite Mind, and Conscience, and Heart, and Soul, 
who is Cause and Providence of this world, — that must 
go up to the highest heights of our speculation, down 
to the lowest deeps of our practice. Take that away, 
and there is nothing on which you can depend, even for 
your money ; or for your liberty and life. Without 
a reverence for the Higher Law of God every thing will 
be ruled by interest or violence. The Church will 
collapse into nothing, the State will go down to juin ! 

All around us are monuments of men who, in the 
name of Tiuth broke the priest's creed, defied the king's 
statute in the spirit of Justice. Look at them ! There 
is a little one at Acton where two men gave their lives 
for their country ; another at Concord ; one at Lexing- 
ton, — a little pile of dear old mossy stone, " Sacred to 
Liberty and the Rights of Mankind ; ' ' another at West 
Cambridge; another at Danvers, — all commemorative 
of the same deed ; and on yonder hill there is a great 
stone finger pointing to God's Higher Law, and casting 
its shadow on the shame of the two sister cities. All 
New England is a monument to the memory of those 
men who trusted God's Higher Law, and for its sake put 
an ocean three thousand miles wide between them and 



32 

their mothers' bones. It is this which makes Plymouth 
Rock so dear. Our calendar is dotted all over with days 
sacred to the memory of such men. What are the First 
of August, the Twenty-second of December, the Nine- 
teenth of April, the Seventeenth of June, the Fourth of 
July, but bright, red-letter days in our calendar, marked 
by the memory of men who were faithful to God, say 
the statutes of tyrants what they may say ? Nay, what 
else are these venerable days, called Christmas, Easter, 
Pentecost and the Catholic Saints' days throughout the 
Christian year ? 

There is one thing which this Bible teaches in almost 
every page, and that is reverence for the Higher Law of 
God. The greatest men who wrote here were only men ; 
to err is human, we all learn by experiment, and they 
were mistaken in many things ; but all teach this, from 
the littlest to the greatest, from Genesis to Revelation, — 
Religion before all other things, Reverence for God 
above all ! It was that for which Jesus bowed his head 
on the Cross, and " sat down at the right hand of God." 

There is an Infinite God ! You and I owe allegiance 
to Him, and our service of Him is the keeping of every 
Law which He has made; — keeping it faithfully, ear- 
nestly, honestly. That is Religion, and to those who do 
it, on every thundering cloud which passes over their 
heads, He will cast his rainbow, girdling it with seven- 
fold magnificence of beauty, and on that cloud take 
them to His own Kingdom of Heaven, to be with Him 
forever and forever. 

140 



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